Minimal research currently exists on the financial aspects, including financial knowledge and capability, that impact previously incarcerated individuals. However, the reality is that many currently and previously incarcerated individuals have never interacted with financial services and, if they have, they had limited exposure. The focus of the current research study was to examine previously incarcerated individuals' banking perceptions, banking behaviors, and financial knowledge by employing a mixed methodology using a sequential explanatory design. Across case analyses discovered three themes of (a) barriers to banking, (b) prudency of banking, and (c) confidence versus trepidation. The findings in this study provide implications for financial institutions and policymakers and suggested solutions are addressed.

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When it comes to money, clients often know what they should do, but they do not always do it. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to introduce a new scale to measure financial cognition and (b) to explore the link between thinking (i.e., covert behavior) and financial behavior (i.e., overt behavior). Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Theory framed the study. Data were collected in two stages from 236 employees in a Midwestern region. Stage one results suggest a newly developed measure, the Financial Cognition Scale, shows acceptable reliability, and construct validity. Stage two found positive associations between the covert behaviors of financial cognition, financial knowledge, and financial self-efficacy and the overt behavior of financial behavior, and a negative association between financial anxiety and financial behavior. Implications for practitioners and researchers are presented.